Baseball Card Market Report for February 23-March 1, 2023 - Top eBay Sales

PLUS -- Does the market love gamers?

Mar 03, 2023

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Fresh “Cardboard” in the Bank Vault

Ah, March.

When Spring has sprung, or soon will.

When young (and old) collectors’ thoughts turn to fresh cardboard. And to old cardboard.

And to cards that aren’t really cardboard at all.

Yes, at this time of year, when anything seems possible on the diamond, every type of card has its day in the sun.

You can see that reflected in last week’s top sellers on eBay, too (see bottom of this post).

From Cobb and Ruth to Tatis and Chourio, you’ll find a bit of everything as we collectively awaken to the possibilities this time of year presents.

Soon enough, the rigors of the season will start shaping the market once again, and certain players will become hobby darlings.

Which reminds me…

Does the Market Love Gamers?

Actual Spring Training games have been underway for about a week now, so I thought it only fitting that we tip our cap to that fact here.

How?

Well, by checking in on the guys who played lots and lots of games in their major league careers.

And the question I want answered is, does playing a lot of games make a player’s baseball cards more valuable than less-prolific “gamers,” all else being equal?

To find out, I grabbed five of the top guys in terms of games played, but not necessarily the VERY top. In particular, I excluded players who are wholly incomparable, for whatever reason — Pete Rose (Hit King, gambling, prison, etc.); Hank Aaron (home run king, he’s Hank Aaron, etc.); Barry Bonds (uh…); etc.

Now, don’t get me wrong — the players I ended up with are unique and all, but they don’t necessarily have those one or two huge *things* that make them stand out in a way that makes them nearly impossible to compare to other players.

So, with that cop-out out of the way …

Then, for each one, I …

Found one of his top historical comps who played in a lot fewer games Baseball Reference’s Similarity Scores (or other swags in some cases)
Found the top rookie card for each of those two players, by measure of number of graded card sales
Found the Card Value Multiplier for each of those cards
Found the Multiplier of Multipliers (MoM) for the two cards, with the gamer in the numerator and his comp in the denominator

It’s a familiar formula if you’ve been around these parts long.

Here’s are how this week’s matchups played out …

(The following section contains affiliate links to eBay listings for the cards being discussed.)

Carl Yastrzemski v. Eddie Mathews

1960 Topps Carl Yastrzemski (#148) - PSA 7

Value: $825
Common Value: $8
Multiplier: 103

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

1952 Topps Eddie Mathews (#407) - PSA 4

Value: $5500
Common Value: $65
Multiplier: 85

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

Multiplier of Multipliers (MoM): 1.2

Eddie Murray v. Todd Helton

1978 Topps Eddie Murray (#36) - PSA 9

Value: $900
Common Value: $4
Multiplier: 225

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

1993 Topps Traded Todd Helton (#19T) - PSA 10

Value: $125
Common Value: $4
Multiplier: 31

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

Multiplier of Multipliers (MoM): 7.3

Dave Winfield v. Vladimir Guerrero

1974 Topps Dave Winfield (#456) - PSA 8

Value: $300
Common Value: $4
Multiplier: 75

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

1995 Bowman Vladimir Guerrero (#90) - PSA 10

Value: $150
Common Value: $4
Multiplier: 38

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

Multiplier of Multipliers (MoM): 2.0

Rusty Staub v. Rocky Colavito

1963 Topps Rusty Staub (#544) - PSA 8

Value: $200
Common Value: $22
Multiplier: 9

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

1952 Topps Rocky Colavito (#212) - PSA 7

Value: $120
Common Value: $20
Multiplier: 6

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

Multiplier of Multipliers (MoM): 1.5

Robin Yount v. Alan Trammell

Note that I went with second-year cards here since Paul Molitor photo-bombs Trammell’s rookie card and makes it hard to pick apart the value attributed to each of the two.

1976 Topps Robin Yount (#316) - PSA 9

Value: $175
Common Value: $6
Multiplier: 29

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

1979 Topps Alan Trammell (#358) - PSA 9

Value: $65
Common Value: $5
Multiplier: 13

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

Multiplier of Multipliers (MoM): 2.2

—

So, what do we see here?

A rarity for these exercises, that’s what … a clean sweep!

In particular, rur MoM is greater than one in every single case, which means all of our big-game guys are further away from being commons than their fewer-game counterparts.

And, sure, playing lots of games gives you more chances to rack up big numbers, but that’s why we’re comparing guys with similar careers from a statistical standpoint (outside of games played, of course).

All in all, though, it looks like we really like the players who, you know, play.

You’ll find other players we like among the …

Top Baseball Card Sales on eBay for February 23-March 1, 2023

(Quick note — this list contains affiliate links to the original eBay listings.)

If you want to see updated 30-day market toppers anytime, we have a couple of resources over on WaxPackGods.com:

Most expensive baseball cards sold in the last 30 days
Most expensive football cards sold in the last 30 days
Most expensive basketball cards sold in the last 30 days

Now, on with the show …

Baseball Card Values Newsletter

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